Caroline Anderson - Double Trouble - Pregnancy Surprise

And then he looked up and met her eyes, and she realised he wouldn’t reject her at all. She was locked in the blue fire of his gaze, unable to breath for the emotion flooding through her.

He reached out his hand and cupped her cheek tenderly, and she realised his fingers were trembling. ‘I need you,’ he said under his breath. ‘I hate you for what you’ve done to me, but, God damn you, I still need you. Come back to me. Please—come back to me; let’s make a life together. We can start again.’

She stepped back, her legs like jelly. It would be so easy…

‘I can’t. Not to that life.’

‘To what, then?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Just not that. Not the endless jetting round the world, the profit-chasing and the thrill of the stock market, the crazy takeovers, the race to the top of the rich list—I don’t want to know any more, Max, and I can’t do it, especially not with the babies. That’s why I left you, and nothing’s changed, has it? You should be in New York now, and, OK, you’re here—but I bet you’ve been on the phone while you were in the pub or on the way over, or on the drive up here, or later after I go to bed you’ll find calls you have to make. Am I right?’ she pushed, and he sighed and nodded.

‘Yes, damn it, you’re right, of course you’re right, but I have a business to run.’

‘And staff. Good staff. Some excellent people, who are more than capable of keeping things going. So let them, Max. Give them a chance to prove themselves, and take time out to get to know your children.’

‘Time?’ he asked cautiously, as if it was a foreign concept, and she would have smiled if her life hadn’t depended on it. As it was she was on the verge of tears, and she tilted her chin and put a little backbone into her voice.

‘Two weeks. Two weeks here, with me, with no phones, no news, no papers, no laptop or email or post—just us. A holiday—you know, one of those things we’ve never had? You, me and the babies, to see if there’s any way we can make a family.’

He was shaking his head. ‘I can’t take two weeks—not just like that. Not without any contact.’

‘You can contact them and tell them,’ she said. ‘I know you’ll need to do that. Look, I can’t talk about this any more. It’s been a hell of a day, and I’m shattered. I’m going to bed, and I suggest you do, too. You can have the room beyond the babies, it’s all ready. And think about what I said. If you’re really serious about us getting back together, then I want that two weeks. No compromises, no cheating, no bending the rules. Just you, me and the babies. Phone your PA and fix it first thing in the morning.’

One of those elegant, autocratic brows gave an ironic quirk. ‘That sounds very much like an order.’

‘Just laying down the ground rules. Either you’re going to engage with this or you’re not.’

‘Just give me one good reason why I should.’

She laughed softly. ‘I can give you two—and if you want to be part of their lives you’ll do this. Because I’m not subjecting them to an absentee father who can’t keep his family commitments and doesn’t know the difference between work and home.’

He stared at her searchingly for the longest moment, then, just when she thought he’d refuse, he nodded.

‘OK. I’ll call Andrea in the morning and set it up. And you can have your two weeks. But make no mistake, I’m doing this for the children, because you’re right—they deserve more than an absentee father. But it’s going to take a long while before I can forgive you for cheating me of their first months, and for keeping something so monumentally important from me. So don’t expect me to be all sweetness and light, because I’m still so angry with you I can’t even find the words for it.’

Her eyes filled, and she swallowed the tears. ‘I know. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but, for what it’s worth, I still love you.’

‘You still love me? You can stand there and say that, and yet you walked out and didn’t come back?’ he said incredulously.

‘Because it was killing me,’ she told him unevenly. ‘And I couldn’t remember who we were. But I do still love you. That’s never been in doubt.’

‘Then come back to me.’

‘No. Not just like that. It’s not enough, not on its own. There has to be more. And I want to know if we’ve got anything left, when our old life’s stripped away and all we’ve got to fall back on is each other. I think we could both be in for a shock.’

‘ANDREA, it’s—’

‘Max! Are you all right?’

He blinked, a little startled by her concern. ‘Fine,’ he lied. ‘I’m fine. Look, I need you to do something for me.’

‘Of course,’ she agreed, but then, before she let him move on, she added, ‘Max, how are things?’

Bizarre. Confusing. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said honestly. ‘I need time to find out. Can you clear my diary for the next two weeks?’

‘I’ve done it,’ she said, surprising him yet again. ‘Well, I’ve shuffled what I can, and cleared most of it. I’m still waiting for Yashimoto to come back to me.’

Damn. He’d forgotten about Yashimoto. He was supposed to have been going on to Tokyo from New York to firm up the new contract.

‘Maybe—’

‘Max, I’ll get him. It’s not a problem. He can deal with Stephen—’

‘No. Stephen doesn’t know all the ins and outs. Get them both to call me—’

‘Ma-ax?’

The warning voice from behind him made him turn, to find Jules propped up against the door frame cradling a cup of tea in her hands, one foot rested on the other, her bare toes looking curiously vulnerable. Not so her face. She was staring at him unflinchingly, and her expression was uncompromising. ‘No phone calls,’ she reminded him, a thread of steel that he’d forgotten about in her voice, and he gave a low groan of frustration and turned his back on her.

‘OK. Scratch that, deal with him yourself, let Stephen handle it. I need to—Well, there are…’

‘Rules?’ Andrea said softly, and he sighed.

‘Two weeks, no business, no distractions.’

‘Well, hallelujah! I think I’m going to like your wife. I just hope I get the chance to meet her. Don’t blow it, Max.’